To build a great business today isn’t just about having a great product or service and an efficient means of producing it. In today’s world, that's a given. To make a real difference means working together to build a great team and making the world better.

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Changing from the Inside out

While KPI's and business metrics are important, they aren't the be-all-and-end-all. To make a real difference means working together to build a great team. To this end, there are a lot of leadership programmes 'out-there' that claim to deliver a 'one-stop-shop' for building high-performance teams.

However, I believe any leadership team with the right people, input and direction can learn to become a high performing team. It’s not about applying some magic formula or going through a 'sheep-dip' process. Following those sorts of programmes means changing people from the 'outside in.' In my opinion, they don't work.

Leadership development is more subtle than that. It's about changing people from the 'inside out'. You have to work on yourselves first. That requires a willingness to grow as individuals and as a team. It also needs you to commit to a process designed around your needs.

So to get the ball rolling, I recommend you work with a skilled leadership specialist who can facilitate a tailor-made approach. In this way, you can design a solution that meets your unique needs and hopes. Besides you can also tackle and resolve your team and business issues.

Building a great leadership team

Becoming a great team takes time. It’s an organic process and taking time out needs to be planned. Moreover, to get there you will need to:

Commit to developing together as a team.

Learn how to collaborate, cohere and boost your emotional intelligence.

Being humble and vulnerable with one another - letting go of ego.

Work towards identifying and reaching your 'big goals.'

Also developing into a high-performance leadership team means that you can then get on with running your business and contribute to making the world better. That is what I mean by building a great team that then leads to a great business.

Choosing a process that works

Ideally, a Leadership development process should include building these common leadership qualities:

These are essential skills and qualities for any leadership team to learn. Regardless of how well you think you as leaders perform - aiming towards further improvements is healthy. The more you collaborate and cohere as a team, the better your performance becomes. Spending time out as a team is never wasted if it has a purpose.

Leaders that don't spend time team building in this way will, in time, end up becoming dysfunctional, and low-performance will set in. That will then filter down through your whole company.

I encourage you all as leaders (regardless of whether you think you have problems or not) to grasp the benefits of team development. When you do this, you better serve each other, your people, your buyers and the long-term future of your company. In short, you build a great Company.

Begin with the end in mind

Another important point is that leaders should begin with the end in mind. Setting goals upfront that will measure and test what success will look like at the end of a development programme is crucial.

For example, launching new products and services or restructures, new KPI targets, teamwork feel-good and engagement surveys as well as goals around turnover and profit growth.

Some evidence

Leaders I work with on such tailor-made solutions tell me that their return on investment is noticeable. For example, as they develop new leadership skills, they become a stronger team. They believe they have changed and grown into a high performing team. Leadership teams see that team meetings and decision making significantly improves.

These benefits may at first glance seem intangible, but, in the end, they finish as tangible differences. Effective collaboration means that as leaders they now challenge each other to work towards even bigger goals during the budget process. And financial targets are more often than not met or exceeded.

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I hope you found this blog useful. If you are looking to develop your own team's success, then please Contact Me and let's grab a coffee to discuss a way forward.

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